Most
organizations
hate
handling
customer
complaints,
partially
because
they're
not
very
good
at
it.
In
fact,
customer
complaints
are
an
opportunity
to
do
either
of
two
things
--
convince
the
customer
that
his
complaint
is
justified,
and
that
you're
even
worse
at
what
you
do
than
he
already
thought,
or
turn
the
customer
into
a
raving
fan.
Unfortunately,
poor
training
and
human
nature
conspire
so
you
rarely
accomplish
the
latter.

This
conversation
surfaced
in
a
meeting
of
Chief
Executive
Boards
International
members
where
we
were
talking
about
vendors
of
which
we're
raving
fans.
One
member
said,
"You'll
never
believe
what
happened
the
last
time
I
called
one
of
our
vendors
about
a
problem
--
I
felt
so
important."
Wow
--
a
complaining
customer
felt
important.
Then
she
explained
how
that
happened
--
including
7
critical
steps
for
turning
a
customer
complaint
into
a
good
customer
experience.

Listen
--
Humans
have
the
ability
to
think,
listen
and
talk
--
but
only
1
at
a
time.
Most
people,
when
first
receiving
a
complaint
call,
are
spending
none
of
their
time
listening
and
all
of
their
time
thinking
about
what
they're
going
to
say
next.
Pay
really
close
attention
to
what
the
customer
says,
and
he'll
tell
you
what
needs
to
happen
to
make
him
happy.

Apologize
--
Whether
it's
your
fault
or
not,
apologize.
Most
people
who
have
been
married
very
long
know
how
to
do
this.
Even
if
it's
entirely
the
customer's
fault,
you
can
still
apologize
for
the
fact
he's
had
a
problem.

Let
him
you
know
you
believe
him
--
You'll
catch
a
complaining
customer
completely
off-guard
if
you
acknowledge
the
fact
that
they
had
a
problem
--
even
if
you're
just
acknowledging
that
they
believe
they
had
a
problem.

Let
him
know
you'll
work
it
out
--
You're
not
saying
you're
opening
the
company's
checkbook
to
them
--
just
say,"I'm
sure
we
can
work
this
out
to
your
satisfaction."

Ask
a
lot
of
questions
--
Open
ended
questions
are
the
best.
"When
did
you
discover
the
problem?"
"What
happened
then?"
"What
have
you
tried?"
"What
can
we
do
to
help?"
Again,
taking
an
active
interest
in
the
problem
and
in
a
real
solution
path
totally
disarms
most
complaining
customers.
Make
sure
you
have
all
the
facts,
and
give
the
customer
every
opportunity
to
vent
everything
he's
saved
up
before
dialing
the
phone.

Outline
the
next
steps
--
If
you
can
fix
the
problem
right
away
to
the
customer's
satisfaction,
tell
them
how
you'll
do
so.
If
it
requires
some
lead
time,
be
honest
about
how
long
it
will
take.
And,
if
you
need
to,
what
other
resources
or
analysis
will
be
required
to
make
sure
the
problem
gets
solved
for
good.

One
vendor
of
whom
I'm
a
raving
fan,
American
Express,
has
a
fascinating
way
of
handling
problem
calls,
usually
in
1
pass,
even
though
another
person
or
department
may
be
required.
They
say
"I'm
going
to
get
the
_____
department
on
the
line
and
they'll
take
over
from
here."
Then
you
find
yourself
in
a
3-way
"handoff"
call,
where
the
first
Amex
operator
introduces
you
to
the
second,
makes
sure
he
understands
why
you're
calling,
and
then
excuses
himself
from
the
call.

Bank
of
America,
on
the
other
hand,
sometimes
offers
to
transfer
your
call
elsewhere,
during
which
50%
of
the
time
your
call
is
lost
and
the
other
50%
of
the
time
you
end
up
talking
to
the
wrong
person.
Other
times
they
just
give
you
another
800
number
("you're
in
the
wrong
department"
--
like
it's
your
fault)
and
you're
on
your
own
through
another
voicemail
purgatory.

Let
them
know
you'll
be
following
up
on
the
problem
with
whomever
needs
to
take
the
next
steps.
And
then
do
it.

Reading
through
this
formula,
you
might
say
"that
makes
a
lot
of
sense",
but
precious
few
companies
do
anything
like
this.
Why?
Because
they're
populated
by
humans,
and
several
millenia
of
conditioning
turn
on
the
"flight"
or
"fight"
response
to
a
complaint
call
--
they
get
defensive.
And
they
start
doing
further
damage.

Note
in
the
above,
nowhere
does
it
say,
"Tell
the
customer
what
he
did
wrong
or
who
else's
fault
it
was
at
your
company
(of
course,
it's
not
yours)."
When
you
call
Bank
of
America
about
a
nuisance
service
charge
that's
not
supposed
to
be
on
your
account,
they
usually
say
"the
computer
does
that
sometimes."
It's
2009
and
they
think
you'll
believe
that
computers
just
"do
that
sometimes"??
Actually,
what
they
think
is
you
won't
notice,
and
you'll
just
pay
the
nuisance
fee.

The
key
to
this
strategy
is
training
--
it's
not
instinctive.
You'll
need
to
train
your
staff
to
walk
through
a
customer
complaint
call
"by
the
numbers",
rather
than
rely
on
their
own
instincts,
which
will
usually
fail
the
average
person.